The present invention relates to net nets for landing fish, and, in particular, to a flexible fish landing net for use from elevated fishing stations.
Sport fishing is oftentimes conducted from elevated locations such as fishing piers and bridges. Various species of varying sizes are commonly caught at such locations. Smaller fish present few problems in landing with the size of the fish being within the strength limitations of the fishing tackle, thereby enabling landing by conventional reeling. Larger fish, however, can present considerable problems. Where a larger fish is hooked, there is a risk that the line will break, due to the weight and movement of the fish prior to successful landing. Under such circumstances, landing may be attempted by traversing the pier until a water location is reached, at which time the fish can be beached, a difficult, cumbersome and time consuming task. At heavily trafficked sites, rental shops may be available whereat the fisherman may be able to rent a suitable large mouth rigid landing net. Inasmuch as such landing nets are large, bulky and costly, few fishermen normally have this type of equipment. Typical of such a net is disclosed in Great Britain Patent No. GB 1,181,354 to Goddard wherein a solid metal ring supports a landing net and is raised as a rigid ring by lifting cords. The net is neither flexible or collapsible. A further version is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,187 to Marcinkowski wherein the netting is collapsible to position a crab trap, however, the support hoop is a rigid circular ring. A limitedly flexible crab net is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,520,780 to Pieron wherein the periphery of the net is provided by two semi-circular hoops that are diametrically constrained, such that upon lifting the sides are compressed inwardly narrowing the net perimeter.
Conventional landing nets are not adapted for such locations. The typical landing net has a fixed hoop with a small attached handle. No provisions are made for lowering these nets from elevated stations. Thus, nets of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,814,899 to Brosius, U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,956 to Hogg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,169,331 to Baker, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,783 to Willard have little utility in pier and bridge elevated fishing.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a fish landing net for pier, bridge and like elevated fishing that could readily be used by fishermen for safely and conveniently ensnaring heavy fish.
The present invention provides a fish landing net that may be collapsed for convenient storage and transportation, and expanded at the site to a full-size landing net that may be lowered from elevated location into the water for netting large and heavy fish that might otherwise escape due to tackle breakage or be released because of difficulties in successfully landing the fish. The landing net includes a flexible, prestressed circular hoop to which heavy duty netting is attached. The hoop is attached to a lifting line by three circumferentially spaced support ropes. The hoop sections around the support ropes have an annealed inner surface, which locally reduces the compressive strength and facilitates reverse bending under loading. When a larger fish is hooked and brought to an underneath location, the net is lowered into the water and maneuvered to ensnare the fish. As the net is raised, the loading forces overcome the prestressing and the reduced compressive strength at lifting locations thereby inwardly deflecting these section and constricting the hoop size and preventing the fish from escaping during landing as well as increasing the stability of the net during vertical movement. When the fish is landed and the load removed, the hoop returns to the original shape for reuse. For storage or transportation, the net hoop may be diametrically twisted into a xe2x80x9cFigure-8xe2x80x9d shape thereby causing the hoop to fold into a plurality of concentric hoop sections, much is the same manner as band saw blades. The compacted hoop may be conveniently transported along normal fishing gear to be deployed when needed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fish landing net for heavy fish that is convenient to transport and easy to deploy.
Another object of the invention is to provide a fish landing net that provides a large opening for ensnaring a large fish and a constricted opening for retaining the fish during vertical movement to a landing site.
A further object of the invention is to provide a fish landing net that is expandable on site to functional sizes and collapsible for convenient storage and transportation.